My papa and mamma don't, but grandma and aunties and my big cousins do. They make you feel prickly all over telling you about proper things.
I tell you it's real hard to feel full of fun and not let it out. It's hard to be a boy in vacation unless you can go off in the country or down by the sea.
|One rainy day papa made two ships for his little girls. They were about a foot long. They had little white sails, and tiny flags floating from the tops of the masts. They were gayly painted.
Sixon put his nose into the paint pail, so he was painted too. But it soon wore off.
Mabel's ship was decorated with blue, so she called it "The Bluebell."
Nelly's was bright with scarlet trimmings. A fine sounding name would be best she thought She named hers "The Pride of the Seas."
When the pleasant weather came again, they had fine times sailing them. As they were always careful they were allowed to go down to the lake. There was a little cove, with a bright sandy beach where they played. They sent the ships across this cove from one side to the other. Back and forth they went, in safety, for a while.
There is sometimes danger for ships, however. This the children soon realized. One day a stray breeze caught the little "Bluebell."
She did not sail across to the other side as she had done before, but out by the point, and away into the great, wide lake.
The wind was strong; the blue streamers fluttered bravely in the sunshine. She sailed far away, and at last was quite out of sight.
"Let's play she has gone to California," said Kelly, as they stood watching her.
"She will come back some time with a load of gold," added Mabel.
"The Pride of the Seas" stuck fast on a mud bank. John, the hired man, rescued her.
```One with merry blue eyes and lips like a cherry,
``And one with dark hair, and cheeks brown as a berry!
```One with jews-harp and whistle and hammer
|One morning Dora's mother was going away to the next town. She was going to bring grandma for a visit.
The carriage was waiting before she was quite ready. "Now I shall not have time to finish my work," she said. "I will let you sweep the sitting-room, Dora. You did it very nicely last week, and I know you want to help me."
Dora was pouting because she could not go in the carriage with her mother. She thought it was very cruel that she must stay at home when she wanted to go so much. So she did not answer, but sat by the window pouting till the carriage was gone. Then she said to herself, "I don't feel like sweeping, and don't care how I do it. I think 't is too bad that I can't go to ride!"